Silicon is the most perfected crystalline material among known semiconductors. The abundance of silicon and the capability to fabricate single crystalline silicon wafers as large as 12″ have led to economical production and domestication of ultra-large scale integrated (ULSI) circuits and devices used in almost every aspect of our daily life. However, silicon can not meet the demands of high power, high speed, high temperature, and chemically inert devices. In addition, the indirect bandgap of silicon makes silicon an extremely inefficient light emitter.
Integration of other semiconductors on silicon can alleviate some of the problems associated with silicon. An obstacle to integration of other semiconductors on silicon is the large lattice-mismatch of Si compounds and alloys with single crystal Si, which makes it difficult to prepare electronic-grade semiconductors on Si. Silicon compounds such as silicon carbide, silicon silicides, (e.g. chromium silicide, nickel silicide, etc.), silicon germanium (SixGe1-x), silicon tin (SixSn1-x), and their ternary alloys are highly sought for a wide range of applications. Economical preparation of electronic grades of these materials as layers on Si or as substrates would trigger new revolutions in the microelectronic/nanoelectronic industry.